False Hop Sedge, Carex lupuliformis

False Hop Sedge (Carex lupuliformis) is now blooming. This species is often found in floodplain forests and wetlands of Florida throughout the Eastern US all the way to Eastern Canada1,2. Members of the Carex genus (sometimes called Carices) have interesting flowers that are often overlooked. False Hop Sedge has both male and female inflorescences, as visible in the following photo.
Flowering False Hop Sedge, Carex lupuliformis. Photo by A. Murray © University of Florida
C. lupuliformis was described in 1848 by physician-botanist Henry Sartwell3 and was published in 1850 by botanist and anti-slavery activist Chester Dewey4.  It is vouchered for 46 out of the 67 counties in Florida.
Fruiting False Hop Sedge, Carex lupuliformis. Photo CC BY-NC-SA Mary Keim. Along the Econlockhatchee River at the Econlockhatchee Sandhills Conservation Area. April 2013.
It has been documented in iNaturalist along Arbuckle Creek, the Myakka River, the Econlockhatchee River, Trout Creek (Hillsborough), the Hillsborough River, Tootoosahatchee Creek, Long Branch (Orange), the Fakahatchee Strand, Sixmile Cypress Slough (Lee County), the St. Johns River, in the Natural Areas Teaching Laboratory at UF, Clear Lake (Alachua), and more.
False Hop Sedge, Carex lupuliformis, growing in standing water. Photo CC BY-NC Sherry Nigro. In Six Mile Cypress Slough, Lee County. February 2019.

False Hop Sedge is within the Lupulinae section of the Carex genus5, which mean that it is closely related to the other hoppy-looking sedges in Florida: Giant Sedge (C. gigantea), Gray's Sedge (C. grayi), Bladder Sedge (C. intumescens), Louisiana Sedge (Carex louisianica), and Hop Sedge (C. lupulina).

False Hop Sedge is listed as threatened or endangered in several US states and Canada6. Habitat loss occurs with the modification and destruction of floodplains.

References

[1] Curtis, Linda. 2013. Carex: Where are they? The Palmetto. 30:4, p. 12-14 link
[2] USDA. 2019. Carex lupuliformis Sartwell ex Dewey false hop sedge. PLANTS Database. link
[3] Sartwell, H. 1848. Carices Americae septentrionalis exsiccatae.
[4] Dewey, C. 1850. Caricography - No. 241. C. lupuliformis, Sartwell. American Journal of Science and Arts. 9:29. p. 29. link
[5] Simpson, et al. 2007. Phylogeny of Cyperaceae Based on DNA Sequence Data - a New rbcL Analysis. Alisco 23, p. 72-83. link
[6] NatureServe. 2019. Carex lupuliformis Sartwell ex Dewey False Hop Sedge. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 7.0. NatureServe, Arlington, VA. U.S.A. Available http://explorer.natureserve.org. (Accessed: 2019-03-23)

Further reading


Curtis, Linda. 2008. Sedges - Do we know them? The Palmetto. 25:2, p. 4-7. link
Hill, S.R. 2006. Conservation Assessment for the False Hop Sedge (Carex lupuliformis Sartwell ex Dewey). Illinois Natural History Survey. link
UF/IFAS CAIP. 2019. Carex lupuliformis. link
False Hop Sedge (Carex lupuliformis). iNaturalist link
Matson, Chris. 2009. Graminoids (Families Poaceae, Juncaceae and Cyperaceae). The Univeristy of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. link

by Valerie Anderson, staff | email

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday's Wildflower:Spanish Needle

Image
Spanish Needle, Bidens Alba Submitted by Donna Bollenbach, Suncoast Chapter Biden's alba , all photos by Donna Bollenbach Nothing attracts more butterflies and bees than a simple white flower called Bidens alba . Also called Romerillo, Beggar’s Tick, Spanish Needle or Monkey’s Lice, this Florida native wildflower is the third most reliable source of nectar for pollinators in our state. There would be many starving bees and butterflies if not for the Bidens family of flowers. More so, Bidens alba and its sister plant, Bidens pilosa , are both edible and have medicinal value. Yet, many gardeners have a love/hate relationship the plant, and some even consider it a pesky weed. Why?
Read more

Florida Native Azaleas

Image
Piedmont Azalea, Rhododendron canescens. Photo by Lilly Anderson-Messec By Lilly Anderson-Messec While growing up in North Florida, I began to recognize the arrival of spring by the boisterous show of white, pink, and fuchsia blooms of azalea shrubs. The house I grew up in had large, mature azalea hedges with a variety of different colors and forms. Every spring, my mom would bring in vases full of them and my dad loved to point out the showy shrubs as we drove through town. I suppose I assumed these plants were native, but most likely I never gave it a thought. I didn’t differentiate a native plant from a non-native one because I didn’t yet know the importance of native plants as the basis of our functioning ecosystems. I was so surprised when I learned the azaleas I was so familiar with (Rhododendron indicum) are actually transplants from Asia! They are favored by the horticultural industry for their fast, vigorous, and dense growth of evergreen leaves and large, showy blooms. Curio
Read more

Paradise Tree: Beautiful and Useful

Image
"The native Paradise tree is more useful than Google, and easy to grow." And how could any blogger resist leading off with this intriguing quote from the Key West Garden Club? I am a Master Gardener and a Master Naturalist, but I only know so much; so I always check out  statistics from experts before posting information about plants. I have a beautiful Paradise tree in my yard, it came from the raffle table at my chapter's program night about six years ago.   Paradise tree                Simarouba glauca For the first six years the little tree had a perfect, closed, cone shape; but just this summer I was astounded one morning to walk out and notice that my tree had changed. The canopy had begun to open up, there were open spaces between the layers of branches. It seemed to happen overnight. Proving again that a garden is constantly in motion, which is one of the fascinating things about observing them. Pinnate leaves of the paradise tree The leaves
Read more